Because of being easy to clean and convenient to use, non-stick cooking utensils have been one of the products preferred by consumers when buying cooking utensils, especially by the newly-married and hard-working white-collar workers. With the development of the product and the maturation of consumerism, non-stick cooking utensils will have enormous market potential and be likely to replace ordinary kitchen cooking utensil. Therefore, non-stick cooking utensil products have potential market space and a rich market profit margin.
In 1955, the first non-stick pan in the world was born in France. When French Engineer Mark Gregoire was looking for the new purpose of Teflon, his wife suggested coating a cooking utensil with this material. In this way the food would not stick to the cooking utensil, so Gregoire made the first non-stick pan and founded Teflon food company-tefare company.
Since the 1960s, non-stick cooking utensils have begun to enter into households, and in developed countries in Europe and the U.S.A, non-stick cooking utensils have entered into thousands of homes. The dissemination rate was so high that by 1999, the American non-stick market sale scale reached $1.019 billion, equal to about 8.5 billion RMB, and about 200 million people had 30 million non-stick cooking utensil products.
In the 1980s, non-stick cooking utensils entered Chinese homes. Because of a good-looking shape, novel, non-stick, non-paste, easy cleaning and easy washing features, non-stick cooking utensils are liked by a great number of consumers and have been “the darling” among modern cooking utensils.
The main principle of non-stick pans is to spread the surface of the aluminum alloy cooking utensil bodies with non-stick dope composed mainly of Polytetrafluoroethylene. After being sintered at a high temperature of 420 degrees Centigrade, a non-stick coat is closely adhered to the aluminum base material. Because of strong chemistry inertia, food is separated from the cooking utensil body by the non-stick coat, so the cooking utensil has the effect of non-stick. In the non-stick cooking utensil market of China and abroad, the non-stick dope used more frequently includes Teflon, CCC, Coflon, and especially Teflon produced by the biggest chemistry-industry corporation throughout the world (Dupont Company, USA). Although there are lots of trade names for the non-stick coat, the main composition thereof is the same, i.e., Polytetrafluoroethylene (for short, 4F, PTFE), a composite macromolecule material. With a number of non-stick cooking utensil products entering households, people begin to worry about the security of the non-stick coat.
In 2001, one of the top magazines in science circles—the English “Nature”—published papers by scientist Marbury and his partners in Toronto, Canada. It claimed the coat of non-stick cooking utensils is made of Teflon, Teflon containing fluoride decomposed into Triflouroacetic acid etc., among which there is alleged to be potential poison and light poison that could possibly pollute the environment after entering into the atmosphere. According to the news of Sina Net Science and Technology of May 17, 2003, an American environmental protection team presented a report to a consumer product security committee which claimed that filmed products mainly composed of 4F, PTFE (e.g., non-stick cooking utensils) could possibly harm human health. This environmental protection group said these products will set out 15 kinds of poisonous gas and chemical matter that include two kinds of carcinogens when used under 700 degrees Centigrade within 3 or 5 minutes. An inside Dupont company research report said non-stick cooking utensils set out poisonous atoms that could kill birds when used under 464 degrees Centigrade. Because non-stick cooking utensils could harm birds and could possibly harm humans this environmental protection group said to stick a label of “possibly poisonous” to non-stick cooking utensils. On Nov. 15, 2003, a CCTV news broadcast reported that American scientific researchers discovered that Teflon widely used to make non-stick cooking utensils can cause cancer after long use, so we should develop new non-stick technology and materials as soon as possible. These research results will make many people worry and look at our non-stick cooking utensils in hand carefully.